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SPECIAL
COLLECTIONS OF THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY |
USDA History Collection
Series III. Secretary's and Agency Memoranda, 1897-1995. 30 cubic ft.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE |
Container List || Collection
Map 
Memoranda issued by the Secretary of Agriculture, as well as communications issued by agencies both within and without USDA, including memos, bulletins, checklists, circulars, directives, handbooks, instructions, notices, orders, regulations, reports, organization charts, forms, pamphlets, and reprints. Most items are from the 20th century and refer to administrative matters within the department and the work of USDA staff.
There are two subseries in this series.
1. Secretary's Memoranda
2. Agency Memoranda
Subseries 1. Secretary's Memoranda, 1897-1995. 3 cubic ft. Container List
The Secretary's Memoranda are official statements from the Secretary of Agriculture, and provide the legal basis for administrative actions within USDA. They were issued in both numbered and unnumbered formats. The numbered series began in 1913 and was discontinued in 1981. Unnumbered memoranda were issued before, as well as concurrently with, the numbered series, and continue to the present day. Several indexes to the numbered series are filed after the last numbered memo. An index to the unnumbered memos covers only the years 1897-1913.
These memos cover such diverse topics as USDA employee policies and procedures, appointments and establishment of boards, committees, and groups, and fiscal and property regulations. Examples of memo topics include Rules & Regulations governing Leaves of Absence in USDA, Employment of Women, Safety in American Agriculture, USDA Policy on Sale of Surplus Pesticides, and the Cotton Marketing Task Force.
Memos were issued by all Secretaries of Agriculture in the time period covered, including J. Sterling Morton, James Wilson, David F. Houston, Edwin T. Meredith, Henry C. Wallace, Howard M. Gore, William M. Jardine, Arthur M. Hyde, Henry A. Wallace, Claude R. Wickard, Clinton P. Anderson, Charles F. Brannan, Ezra Taft Benson, Orville L. Freeman, Clifford M. Hardin, Earl L. Butz, Bob Bergland, John R. Block, Richard Lyng, Clayton K. Yeutter, Edward R. Madigan, Mike Espy, and Dan Glickman. Memoranda also were issued by individuals in the position of Acting Secretary, including Renick W. Dunlap, Charles F. Martin, K. T. Hutchison, and True D. Morse.
While this collection of memoranda is extensive, it is not complete. Many early memos are missing even though the index may list their dates of issue and topics. Other memos are represented only by transcriptions or summaries from other sources.
Arrangement:
The numbered memos are arranged by number, with revisions and
amendments that were issued later filed under the original number. Unnumbered memos are
filed by date.
Subseries 2. Agency Memoranda, 1939-1991. 27 cubic ft. Container List
This subseries encompasses many types and titles of documents, including bulletins, checklists, circulars, directives, handbooks, instructions, memoranda, notices, orders, regulations, and reports. In addition, some of the memoranda have attachments or exhibits that may include other memoranda, organization charts, forms, pamphlets, reprints from the Federal Register or Code of Federal Regulation, and other documents.
The majority of the memos in this subseries were issued by agencies of the USDA. (See list of agencies below.) They contain directions for staff concerning the mission and programs of the agency, as well as information on a variety of administrative topics such as benefits, personnel assignments, and employee conduct. Among memoranda from over 30 agencies, this subseries includes AMS Instructions and Notices from the Agricultural Marketing Service, 1953-1972; ASCS Notices, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, 1961-1973; and CSS Memoranda, Commodity Stabilization Service, 1953-1961.
A few memos are included that were issued by agencies outside of the USDA, such as regulations and orders of the National Production Authority, part of the Department of Commerce. These memos are interfiled with USDA materials, under the issuing agency name. A complete list of agency names is included at the end of this scope and content note.
Two other agencies, also not part of the USDA, whose records are included here, are the Office of Price Administration (OPA), which operated during World War II, and the Office of Price Stabilization (OPS), established during the Korean War. The orders and regulations of these offices, along with the records of the War Food Administration (WFA), a WWII agency within USDA, provide a detailed view of the regulation of prices, production and distribution of agricultural products and services during wartime.
The War Food Administration was the product of a series of Executive Orders from 1942-1943. It included both new branches and agencies as well as pre-existing agencies that were subsumed by it during this time. Chief among these were the Food Distribution Administration and Food Production Administration, both of which had been established in 1942, combined in 1943, and ultimately underwent a name change to become the WFA. Other agencies included in the WFA were the Commodity Credit Corporation, the Federal Extension Service, the Farm Credit Administration, the Agricultural Marketing Administration, and the Agricultural Adjustment Agency.
Arrangement:
The agency memoranda have been arranged alphabetically, first by the
name of the issuing agency, and then by document title or type.
Most of the agency memoranda were originally stored in three-ring binders. Some were
organized by number, others by date. For the most part, each binder held one kind of document,
but in a few instances, document titles
such as Notices, Memoranda, Instructions, were interfiled. Documents have generally been
arranged either
numerically or chronologically according to the way they were found.
In a few cases, clearly distinct document types that had been mixed together were sorted and filed separately. Also, checklists and indexes have been extracted and filed in separate folders (following the records they refer to) so they may be used as guides to the contents of the memos.
Related material:
Similar documents may be found in sections of Series I (Documentary File), dealing with the
agencies that issued the memoranda in this series.
List of Agency Names
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 Special Collections Telephone: 301-504-5876 e-mail: SpecialCollections@ars.usda.gov http://www.nal.usda.gov/speccoll/collect/history/s03.htm 13 May 1999 |
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